


Who You're Not

by BardofHeartDive



Series: Tumblr Posts [12]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Secret Identity, Undercover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:48:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27659074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BardofHeartDive/pseuds/BardofHeartDive
Summary: Written for N7 Month 2020: Day 21, Undercover
Series: Tumblr Posts [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/536902
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Who You're Not

**Author's Note:**

> Many, many thanks to the lovely [RockPaperbackScissors](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RockPaperbackScissors/pseuds/RockPaperbackScissors) for beta-reading. All the mistakes are mine.

The first step of becoming someone you’re not is erasing who you are.

For Veerla, that starts with a trip to the shoppette for toiletries. Layla doesn’t even ask if she’s going dark anymore; she knows as soon as the white bar soap and gray and blue bottles appear in the shower. Standard-issue stuff is shit and no one buys it if they have any other choice. The clerks still openly gawk at her selection sometimes.

The first shower is a long one, washing and rinsing, over and over until the lilac is completely washed away. That’s hers after all; the scent is a connection to a planet and a past, and the point is to not be her anymore. The smell of baby powder replaces it, somehow mild and overpowering at the same time, and “Veerla” is gone, leaving a blank slate in the shape of a person, an empty vessel waiting to be filled with a new identity.

Next comes the lab.

Dyes and make-up work for short jobs but for longer assignments a melanin inhibitor or stimulator paired with an activating agent is necessary. Disguises start with chemistry now and each identity has her own cocktail determining skin, hair, and eye color. A tech records the compounds and files them away for later. You never know when an old cover might owe or be owed a favor, might get you into or out of a situation, might be able to save someone’s life or ruin it.

The worst part is the scan. Nothing like standing naked in a scanning suite while a panel of your coworkers stare at you from behind the glass. At least in a ship’s communal showers everyone is naked and looking is typically done discreetly. The team is always professional and she’s gotten better about it over the years but the first time she barely managed to stay still enough to get the images. These are saved with the chemical information as well, so in a year, or five, or fifty the VI programs will be able to recreate every birthmark, scar, and tattoo, to a fraction of a millimeter.

She gets a robe for the trip to the changing room where her box is waiting. Outfit, accessories, documents, pocket litter. Barry always leaves gum, mint or cinnamon or sometimes even fruit, Maxwell has a thing for pens. There’s luggage by the door as well. If she’s got the time, she’ll go through it before she leaves. They don’t give her a full wardrobe but enough to get her a feel for the style and to wear through a few days until she can buy more.

By the time she’s dressed and out the door again, she is someone else as far as the rest of the galaxy is concerned. For her, there’s one last step though. It is, in some ways, the first.  Every assignment begins in a major spaceport and every major spaceport has a duty free with a cosmetics counter.

“I’m looking for something new,” she tells the salesperson after sniffing a few of the perfume samples. “Do you have any recommendations?”


End file.
